Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 12:07:47 Subject: Chin Up From: ernestonotcom@netzero.com To: berto_alto@tank20.com Berto, Ernesto here. Your BIG BROTHER. Docs say you won’t take phone calls but check your email religiously. Docs say you won’t TALK AT ALL. Docs say the last words they heard from you were when upon admittance you GRABBED A BROOM…

Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 10:26:37 Subject: Re: My Shame and My Confession From: skipsvskip@hotmail.com To: susannenbreone@aol.com Susanne, I noticed that you weren’t at Starbucks at the appointed hour. I’m really sorry, the last thing I wanted to do was creep you out and I feel ridiculous for my assumption. Truth told, I guess I…

Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 00:10:31 Subject: Re: My Shame and My Confession From: susannenbreone@aol.com To: skipsvskip@hotmail.com Skip, Tuesday I took my latté at 7:30, today at 9:15. This is not to say that I’ve been avoiding you, but that in fact I have avoided you. It’s been difficult for me to formulate the right…

Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2002 11:28:55 Subject: My Shame and My Confession From: skipsvskip@hotmail.com To: susannenbreone@aol.com Dear Susanne, You don’t know me but sometimes you see me on the street, wearing wraparound shades and the uniform of a bicycle messenger. I guess I shouldn’t say “the uniform of” — the truth is that I am…

From Scott Rettberg: the preceding was a just a little taste of Blue Company. I need to admit that I had some interface issues, trying to transfer Rob’s old HTML to the Necessary Fiction interface, and I apologize to Rob for the format being a little bit off from the original. It’s awkward, really trying…

Date: Sat, 18 May 2002 Subject: work work work From: berto_alto@tank20.com To: You Dear You, Awwwwww . . . I notice from your message header that you’re writing me from work on Saturday! I thought you were trying for a real weekend this week. Poor you! (I think it’s Saturday, isn’t it?) Up here in…

*Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 * Subject: rooster duty *From: berto_alto@tank20.com * To: You Dear You, I traded some information (7th grade genetics) for a new blue Renaissance Crayon! Fair Warning whispers Good morning. And I really mean “good morning”! beckons you closer In fact, I feel it’s my responsibility to warn you that I…

*Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 * Subject: glimpses From: berto_alto@tank20.com To: You Dear You, Trying to Start on an “Up” Note You shoulda seen the huge eerie gorgeous triangular herds of birds ricocheting around the narrow valley rippling and squawking and shitting this morning. (I’m trying to start on an “Up” Note before the whining…

Date: Tue, 14 May 2002 Subject: best news From: berto_alto@tank20.com To: You DearYou, Sorry if your spam-blocker has been resisting these e-mails Many doctrinaire e-mail servers block out e-mail from centuries where neo-classicism is on the rise! (By Mercurius!) What’s It Like Back Here? You ask for glimpses. Well . . . everything is totally…

Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 Subject:…um… “hello” From: berto_alto@tank20.com To: You Dated this day, May the . . . probably about . . . *stares at stars, counts on fingers carry the two . . . about May the 13th, right? Dear . . . you, . . . er . . . remember me…

For the next week or so, I’ll be posting selected missives from two email novels, both written in 2002: Rob Wittig’s Blue Company and my own Kind of Blue. Blue Company is a novel composed of email messages from Berto, a lovesick copywriter transferred to 14th Century Italy who addressed letters to his romantic correspondent…

France has a long history of experimentation in digital literature, generative narrative and combinatory poetics. Owing in part to a tradition of constrained writing practices, the most celebrated exemplars of which are the Oulipo, French authors have worked at using the capabilities of the computer as an aspect of their writing practice for more than…